ROP Screening Programme: Need For Institutional Advocacy and Sustainable Management Practices

Abstract

To ensure sustainable practices in the screening and management of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), it is imperative to have institutional advocacy, as well as the development of human resources, national and international collaboration, and networking among paediatrics (NICU) and ophthalmology teams. Tertiary Referral Centres in Pakistan are now at the forefront of the efforts against retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and associated morbidities. In Pakistan, organized efforts to implement the ROP screening program were  made  in different institutions nationwide with the help of national and international non-government organizations since 2013. In Mayo Hospital Lahore, a tertiary care hospital affiliated with King Edward Medical University (KEMU), the ROP screening and management program was initiated with the collaboration of the College of Ophthalmology & Allied Visual Sciences (COAVS, KEMU) and the Fred Hollows Foundation (2014-16), afterward, COAVS enabled the acquisition of the program, while Pakistan Retinopathy of Prematurity Educational & Research Alliance (PROPERA) became the spearhead of an ROP screening program since 2014 to build human  resource and infrastructure in Pakistan. PROPERA established a network of partner  hospitals across the country, harnessing the emerging epidemic of preventable, irreversible blindness in premature babies.

Recently, an ROP audit from different healthcare institutions in Pakistan was presented at the Lahore Ophthalmology International Conference (8th -10^th Dec 2023). The participants highlighted that ROP-associated blindness has now spread rapidly into large parts of the country due to improved newborn care facilities. With improvement and augmentation in neonatal services, more preterm newborns are surviving. These neonates are at higher risk of ROP, a Vaso- proliferative retinal disease and potentially blinding disorder.